America in the Gilded Age: Third Edition

3. Exodus to a Promised Land

CHAPTER 3 Exodus to a Promised hand At th e tur n o f th e centur y th e mos t famou s magicia n i n th e worl d wa s Harry Houdini , a n America n immigran t wh o specialize d i n grea t es capes . H e coul d fre e himsel f fro m handcuffs , iro n collars , an d strait jackets . Wit h consummat e eas e h e emerge d fro m priso n cell s an d pad locked safes, from rive r beds and buried coffins. H e captivated audience s who sa w i n his escapes a symbolic reenactment o f thei r ow n emancipa tion from th e Old Worl d an d thei r flight t o the New. By his art Houdin i could expres s thei r fantasies , needs , an d fears . Hi s ow n experience s o f displacement an d assimilatio n ha d equipped him perfectly . Born Ehric h Weis s i n 1874 , Houdin i too k th e nam e o f another , th e French conjuro r Robert-Houdin . Hi s lif e story , persona l an d profes sional , wa s a serie s o f escapes . Hi s rabb i fathe r fle d Budapes t t o evad e arrest. Th e so n ra n awa y fro m hom e i n Appleton , Wisconsin , whe n h e was twelve to fre e himsel f fo r hi s chosen career . I n 189 4 n e elope d wit h a Catholi c girl , Beatric e Rahner , whos e widowe d mothe r woul d no t accept him ; neither , a t first , woul d th e worl d o f America n sho w busi ness . I t wa s onl y afte r h e hel d Londo n audience s spellboun d tha t h e could make the big time in the United States . When h e did so, his stunt s and illusion s wer e take n a s a celebratio n o f immigration—physical , spiritual, and psychological . 73 74 Exodus to a Promised Land The par t playe d b y th e Unite d State s i n th e mas s migration s o f th e nineteenth an d twentiet h centurie s i s mos t distinctive—an d no t fo r quantity alone . American s looke d t o th e future , no t th e past . Wher e people ha d com e fro m wa s les s important tha n wher e the y wer e going . The very word "immigrant " wa s invented b y Jedidiah Mors e in 178 9 t o describe foreig n settler s i n Ne w York . B y callin g the m immigrants , rather than the more traditional "emigrants, " Americans emphasized th e fact that newcomers had entered a new land rather than left a n old one. American immigratio n wa s continuou s throughou t th e nineteent h century. Nevertheless, there were three distinct waves, each greater tha n the on e before . Accordin g t o historia n Marcu s Le e Hanse n the y wer e dominated successivel y by the Celts, Germans, Slavs, and Mediterranea n peoples. Of th e 5 million people who crossed the Atlantic between 181 5 and i86 0 an d th e 1 0 millio n wh o di d s o betwee n i86 0 an d 189 0 th e majority cam e fro m Britai n an d Ireland , German y an d Scandinavia , Switzerland an d Holland . However , th e 1 5 millio n wh o compose d th e third wave, from 189 0 to 1914 , came principally fro m Ital y and Greece , Austria-Hungary an d Russia , Rumania an d Turkey . The extent o f th e change is best illustrated b y a comparison o f immi gration figures at the crest of the second and third waves in, respectively, 1882 and 1907 . In 1882 , 788,992 immigrant s arrived— a recor d fo r th e nineteenth century . O f these , 250,63 0 wer e fro m German y (th e highes t number ever) , 179,42 3 fro m Britai n an d Ireland , an d 105,32 6 fro...